Doubles Matches
by Mrfipp
Summary: What exactly did happen to get Pyrrha and Sun into the finals of the tournament?
1. Doubles I: Preliminary

Fipp: Before I get to the actual story, there's a few things about some of the back story behind this fic I want to say. Be warned, there is some complaining on my part related to the SSSN team match and some issues related to it.

First, I originally had the idea to write something like this back during V3 when Pyrrha and Sun showed up in the finals, and we skipped their respective doubles matches. I wondered why they had skipped them, but then we later learned that there was supposed to be a Pyrrha/Nora vs Sun/Neptune fight, but it was cut for time. I'll talk a bit more about that in a bit.

Second, I was extremely disappointed in the SSSN/NDGO fight. Watching it, I get the impression that they wanted to make this a "fun" fight to contrast the later tone of the volume, but to me it was awful, and a joke in ways they didn't intend it to be. I was rather looking forward to this fight since it would have been a proper introduction to the team as a whole, but Sage is taken out in the first ten seconds, Scarlet is taken out by a hit to the balls, and Neptune is more of a detriment than anything else. I think this fight is so terrible, that it plays a large in my absolute confusion as to what their role in the show is supposed to be. I honestly can't think of a way they can write in Sage and Scarlet without it being awkwardly shoehorned in.

Third, because of how awful that fight was, it made me a bit happy that the NP/SN fight was cut because I felt that it would have been written in a similar way. Then a month or so ago someone on Tumblr made a post detailing the V3 commentary and I was completely right, that fight would have been just as terrible as I thought it would be. The two things that really got me was having Pyrrha mock Neptune for his fear of water, which seems fairly out of character for her, and Neptune having water wings installed in his jacket. The whole thing seemed like it was just going to be more ill-timed and ill-fitted humor for the sake of being "fun", and it really makes wonder if there any actual effort put into these fights.

So, this is my own solution to this, writing three 2v2 fights, one for Sun and Neptune, another for Pyrrha and Nora, and one more Sage and Scarlet because there really should have been a proper introduction for them at some point.

Enough of my complaining, please enjoy the story.

(Scarlet's semblance is based of somewhat reasonable theories, while Sage's is not so reasonable theories.)

 **Doubles I: Preliminary**

Weiss felt like a headache was coming on, her eyes squeezing tight, a bad one at that. It had nothing to do with the fact that she had more or less exploded when she had pushed Flynt Coal into a geyser in a bid to save Yang from a sneak attack. No, instead it came from the voice that was by her bed in the nursing station in the Amity Coliseum.

"OH MY GOD DID YOU SEE THAT?!" Ruby cried out, jumping to her feet and gleefully bouncing up and down. "His sword is able to absorb the elemental energy from anyone's dust and transfer those properties to his arrow!" This was followed by a high-pitched squeal.

In the wall opposite of her bed was a screen displaying the current match that was going on in the area, though Weiss had to admit that at the moment she didn't care too much about which teams were fighting, or who was winning, only that this was directly after her and Yang's victory over Team FNKI. At the moment, all she wanted to do was sleep for about a half-hour.

Yang blew a raspberry. "So? Then don't use elemental Dust."

"I don't think you can just say that Yang," Blake then offered. "If someone is heavily reliant on things like that, then a weapon like that could be devastating."

Ruby gasped. "HER MACE TURNS INTO A BAZOOKA!"

"Nah, you can just brute force that kind of stuff. It's always worked for me, if it's something I can't punch, I just punch harder. Never failed me before."

"That's why you need to have contingency plans, be adaptable!"

While Weiss appreciated that her team wanted to be near her, she more or less wanted them gone. She just wanted peace and quiet, and the three girls doing nothing but talk amongst themselves while she tried to rest was not really-

"WHAT'S UP NERDS!" came a loud voice from the door, an Sun popped into the room, his entire team behind him.

"Hey Sun," Blake said, giving a small wave. "What are you guys doing back here?"

"Nothing too big," Sun said, shrugging his shoulders. "Just wanted to check up on you guys after that fight. By the way, good job on the victory, you guys earned it."

"One hell of a fight, I'll say that," said Sage, walking up to a wall and leaning up against it. "It was touch and go there for a few minutes, but you managed to pull it out."

"Honestly, I thought you guys were goners," Scarlet added, flicking his bangs from his eyes. "Once Weiss was taken out, I was almost positive Yang wouldn't be too far behind, but you did. Good on you mates."

"And why are you two so surprised they won?" Neptune said, sounding offended on her and Yang's part. "Of course they won, I wouldn't be surprised if they make it to the final one-on-one. Oh? How is Weiss, anyway? Her aura broke out there, so we're a bit worried about her."

"Oh, she's fine," Ruby answered, keeping one eye on the tv.

"The nurse just gave her some medicine that will help replenish her aura," Blake said, taking several steps closed to Team SSSN. "She's just a bit exhausted, but she'll be up in the hour, maybe even less."

"She would appreciate it if you didn't talk about her as if she wasn't here," Weiss spoke up, in a soured tone, catching everyone's attention.

"You're awake?" Yang asked in surprise. "I thought you were asleep!"

"It's hard to sleep when everyone keeps talking," she growled in response.

Ruby the knelt down next to Weiss' bed, trying to catch her at eye level. "Weiss, do you want us to leave so you can get some rest?"

"...No Ruby, in fact, I want you to get JNPR in here to so you can all have a big celebration party for our win in the tournament."

For a brief moment, Ruby's eye lit up, before she frowned. "Wait, are you being sarcastic?"

Yang then walked up behind Ruby and placed a hand on her shoulders. "C'mon kiddo, let's get going and give Weiss some time to herself, and go watch the fights." Her eyes turned briefly to the tv. "Looks like that one is getting close to being done anyway."

"We better get going too," Sun said. "Neptune and I need to get to the locker rooms in case we're called to fight.

"You two are going to the doubles?" Blake asked, curiously.

From his corner, Sage gave an annoyed mumble before he stepped out of the room.

"Dude, I called dibs! That's how we roll, you've known that from day one!" Neptune called back to him, before turning back to Weiss. "Get better soon Weiss, hope to see you in the stands." He then gave a wink and exited through the door, and soon everyone else filed out behind them.

Now that she was alone, Weiss allowed herself to sleep.

000

Most of RWBY and SSSN walked out of the nursing station, but Blake gave pause.

"Is something wrong, Blake?" Yang asked when Blake stopped just outside the door.

"No, it's nothing," she said, turning back to the office. "Actually, I'm going to stay here for a bit, just in case Weiss needs something. You guys enjoy the fights, and Sun and Neptune, good luck in your upcoming fight."

With that, Ruby and Yang walked in the direction of the stands, Sun and Neptune made their way to the lockers, and Blake herself went back into the nurse's station. The first thing she did was walk over to the small table in the waiting room and pick up one of the magazines scattered on the glass surface.

"What are you doing?" asked a voice from behind her, causing her to fumble with the magazine. Turning around her met with Scarlet's face, carefully watching her.

"What are _you_ doing?" Blake nearly hissed. "You don't just sneak up on people like that?"

"And why not?" he said, dropping into one of the chairs, crossing one leg over the other and propping one arm up and resting his head on his hand. "There's nothing to do until Sun and Neptune go out and fight, so I'm free to do whatever I like?"

Blake huffed in annoyance, then unable to stop Sage from taking her magazine from her grasp.

"Anything good in here?" he asked, sounding rather bored. He flicked through the pages for several moments before turning his attention to the cover, before Blake took the magazine back herself.

"If you must know," she said, her voice on edge. "I saw this as we were leaving; it's a popular literature magazine, and there's an interview in it with one of my favorite authors."

"The smut series?" Scarlet asked, throwing it out causally. "Whatever it's called."

"'Ninjas of Love'," Sage replied simply, sitting down and picking up a magazine of his own.

"No it's not!" Blake defended. Though, there were some rumors that the author being interviewed, who had written many of the books she loved as a child, had also written 'Ninjas of Love' under a different name. Personally, she liked to believed that they were separate, for fear of her childhood. "How do you even know about what I read?"

"Sun told us about it," Scarlet said, giving a small laugh. "Said he wanted to get you a gift, so he ended up looking what you read. He had a very amusing look on his face when he told us about your tastes."

"And you weren't supposed to tell her that," Sage added, flicking a page. Scarlet ignored him, and Blake deiced to ignore them both, and proceeded to sit down to her magazine.

She wasn't certain how much longer it had been, maybe close to thirty minutes, but she was able to tell that the latest match was apparently come to an end as she was half-listening to the television. Blake also heard a pair of foot steps walking up the hall, and putting down her magazine she was able to see Weiss round the corner.

"You're looking refreshed," Blake said, putting the magazine back onto the table.

"Thank you, Blake, and I feel refreshed," Weiss said, a content smile on her face as she dusted off the sleeves of her jacket. "My aura is back to an acceptable level, and the nurse says that I'm more than fine to go back and watch the tournament."

"Well, then let's get going, shall we?" Scarlet pushed himself out of his seat, adjusting the jacket that sat on his shoulders. "Who knows, maybe one of our friends will be on next." He was the first one out the door, followed closely by Sage. Turning to Weiss, Blake gave a nod before she too left, the heiress following closely behind her.

000

" **AND THE TEAMS FOR THE NEXT MATCH HAVE BEEN SELECTED!"** came Professor Port's voice, booming through the speaker system. **"AND THIS IS CERTAINLY GOING TO BE INTERESTING AS BOTH TEAMS ARE FROM HAVEN ACADEMY!"**

The halls of Amity were mostly abandoned, save for the four students walking through them, as everyone had already been long since seated to watch the fights.

"Both Haven teams?" Sage asked, looking up to the ceiling. "Think they're up next?"

"Maybe," Blake answered. "How many teams from Haven are left?"

" **FIRST UP, WE HAVE SUN WUKONG AND NEPTUNE VASILIAS OF TEAM SSSN!"** called out Doctor Oobleck's speedy voice.

"Hey look at that!" Scarlet called out, clapping his hands. "There they are! Do us proud boys!"

" **AGAINST TIAMAT** **KAMPF AND ONRAC KRAKEN OF TEAM KAOS** (Chaos) **!"**

"KAOS?" Weiss asked, before turning around to look at Sage and Scarlet. "Do you two know them?"

"You could say that," Sage said, burying his face into a hand.

"Well, there goes that victory then," Scarlet sighed, his shoulders slumped as he trudged forward.

"What's the problem?" Blake asked, worried about the sudden change in their demeanor. "Do you two know KAOS?"

"You could say that," Sage, his voice deepened. "Sun mentioned that there's a team you guys tend to have run ins with, called CRDL, right?"

Blake scowled. "A bunch of bullies that like nothing to pick on anyone who can't defend themselves."

"Well KAOS is are our CRDL," Scarlet huffed. "They're a second year team that's been out for us since day one. I'm a bit ashamed that they've more or less beaten us at every given chance. They're not terribly nice people."

"Well that certainly sounds like they have a challenge ahead of themselves," Weiss said, arms folded behind her back. "But I'm more than confident that they'll manage to pull out a victory."

"Like those two idiots stand a snowball's chance in hell against out team."

The four came to a stop at the sound of the melodious voice, and before them two figures came from around the corner. The first one was a tall, lithe boy, almost skeletal it seemed, with deathly pale skin, deep yellow eyes, and not a single hair on his head, but there are been two large curved horns. A goat faunus maybe, thought Blake. His chest was bare, better showing off his thin frame, and a purple longcoat was draped over his shoulder., clawed gauntlets on his arms, and purple armor cladding his legs. The second figure was a girl, much shorter, dark skinned with orange eyes, and a head of thick blonde hair woven into numerous braids, and a dark green bandanna wrapped around her head. Her top covered very little, wrapping only her chest, while her pants were loose and baggy, and a purple waist-cloth trailing behind her, covered in red spots.

"And who are you, might I ask?" Weiss said, stepping forward.

"That would be the other half of KAOS," Scarlet answered, his voice tense, raising a hand up and pointing towards the pair. "That guy is Arwan Liche, and the girl is Marilith Shaktari."

"What are you two doing here?" Sage said, sounding more tired and annoyed than anything else.

"What?" Shaktari gave an exaggerated shrug, slowly stepping forward. "I mean, here we are, just on our way to the stands to support our teammates, as they advance their way to the singles."

"However, such support may not be needed," Arwan said, his voice deep, almost hollow sounding. "Kampf and Onrac don't really have much in the way of a challenge. They might as well just advance us to the finales."

"Right, right, we get it," said Scarlet, waving a hand in the air, impatiently. "You think we're going to lose, so you came here for a pre-battle gloating, right?"

Sage folded his arms over his chest. "If that's all you have to say, we're leaving. Now." With that, he turned around, as did his three friends.

"Nu-uh! We're not done with you yet!" called out Shaktari, waving a finger around, and a sly smile on her face. "You see, Arwan and I were talking a few minutes ago, about how much fun it was going to be to watch our teammates utterly wreck your inept little friends, but then we got an idea of our own!"

Behind her, Arwan approached slowly. "Why should they be the only ones who get to enjoy themselves? We came to this tournament for the purposes of fighting, did we not? So should we not be allowed to indulge in ourselves?"

"What are you talking about?" Sage asked, adjusting his footing slightly.

"What I'm saying is simple." Shaktari lowered her hand, grabbing the hilt of her weapon at her side. "While our friends wipe the floor with your friends, we beat you two down." She gave a sharp grin. "Doesn't that sound fun?"

"What?" Scarlet gasped.

"Are you honestly talking about attacking us right in this hallway?" Weiss snapped. "You can't do that! That's against so many rules and regulations!" She then pointed right at them. "Why do you even have your weapons in the first place? Shouldn't those be in storage right now?"

"Shut it Schnee," Shaktari snapped, throwing a biting glare towards Weiss. "This has nothing to do with you, just Artichoke and Fancy Pants here. You and the goth cocktail waitress here and screw off for all I care."

Weiss fumed where she stood, while Blake could only look down at her attire in confusion.

"Also, if you hadn't noticed, they have their weapons as well," Arwan said smoothly, gesturing to the fact that both Sage and Scarlet had their own weapons. "Since all four of us are in reserve in the chance that one of our teammates is unable to take part in their match, we are able to carry our weapons."

"He's right Weiss," Blake said, glancing to her shorter friend. "Both Ruby and I had our weapons in case something went wrong with either you are Yang, but now that the match it over, we've all sent out weapons back to the school."

"Don't you think this is a bit much?" Sage said, trying to be reasonable. "You could get in serious trouble for this, maybe even get disqualified,"

"And who's going to notice?" Shaktari said, arms waving to the empty halls. Everyone is waiting for the match to start, so we're all alone in here."

"We can put a stop to it?" Blake said, her voice level and defiant. "At the very least, we can get help." Blake really wished to avoid a fight, Weiss' aura would still be low at this point, and her own skills without her weapons were acceptable at best.

"We can stop you, it would not be much of a challenge for us to fight both of them and keep you here." Arwan reached over his shoulder and grabbed the weapon at his back.

"So, what's it going to be boys?" Shaktari taunted. "I mean, we're going after you no matter what, but maybe you can make it easier on yourselves by just going along with the flow."

"What is it with you guys anyway?" Scarlet groaned, rubbing at his eyes in exhaustion. "Can't just leave us along for once? Seriously, what's your deal with us anyway?"

"You're weaker than us, isn't that enough?" Shaktari answered, simply.

Scarlet glared at the pair, giving off an agitated groan of his own when a large sword entered his view, and turning to his side he saw that Sage had drawn his weapon and pointed it right at the two members of KAOS. "Sage?"

"You know what?" Sage said, more aloud than to Scarlet. "They way I see it, we don't have much to lose here. Yes, you can beat us, but what's that going to be, another notch under your belt? But if we beat you?" He gave a brief chuckle as he stared them down. "Then maybe we can convince you guys to back off once and for all."

"Oh? So you choose to fight? How very welcoming." Arwan then turned his gaze towards Scarlet. "What of you, Scarlet David? Will you let him do this alone, or will you assist him, knowing the likelihood of defeat?"

Scarlet looked between Arwan and Shaktari, before looking to Sage, and then rolled his eyes, before grabbing his jacket, hanging loosely over his shoulders, and threw it into the air, and before it could even hit the ground, he had already drawn his sword and pistol. "If Sage is going in, I might as well." He glanced over to Sage, who held the stares of the opposition, and gave his own smirk. "Couldn't leave my boy hanging, could I?"

"Blake? Weiss?" Sage said to the two girls, though not turning around to face them. "These two aren't going to let us go, and trying to resist them could land us in more trouble. You're both either still too tired or ill-equipped to be of any real help, so you two can head back to the matches if you want to."

"Are you two really doing this?" Weiss asked, baffled. "You're just going to fight them here, in the halls?"

"Yes."

Blake turned to Weiss. "At least he's straight forward."

"Good to see you guys are getting into this," Shaktari laughed, as both she and Arwan drew their weapons, and both Weiss and Blake saw the similarities they had to Scarlet and Sage's own.

Like Sage, Arwan held a giant sword, though his had a thicker blade, and was a deep black in color, with a skull decorating where the blade met the handle. They could also see deep lines running across the blade, leaving them wondering what secondary form it could take. Shaktari's sword was similar to Scarlet, a long curved sword, a scimitar to his cutlass, though like Arwan the blade was thicker, and around the handle there was a complicated mechanical system.

All the while, Port's voice blared though the loud system.

" **AND THE MATCH BEGINS IN 3... 2... 1... START!"**

The members of SSSN and KAOS charged at one another, Scarlet and Shaktari gaining ground over their partners before they met in the middle, their blades clashing together briefly before parting, they each struck again, the hits only lasting less then a single moment before they hit again in a flurry of sparks. Shaktari struck harder though, batting away his blade and swinging for his head, but he was able to duck before the blade could connect, leaving room for Sage to swing his own sword, forcing her to roll backwards, and Sage to jump after her. Scarlet was about to follow after them when Arwan stabbed his sword forward, piercing the ground where Scarlet had jumped from, giving him time to land on the sword, then run up it in an attempt to attack Arwan, but the taller boy merely heaved the sword up, sending Scarlet flying over his shoulders and into the air. While in the air, Scarlet spun around and drew his pistol out and fired at Arwan's back, but his sword had swung over his back, protecting him like a shield.

Shaktari quickly jumped backwards from Sage's attacks, then cartwheeled out of the range of the second swing. The movement was to quick for Sage to notice, but her free hand glowed a bright orange for a moment as it touched the ground in the instant they were in contact, leaving the glow on the ground. As she sailed backwards through the air, Sage stepped on that spot and was thrown back by a pillar of erupting fire.

"What was that?" Blake asked aloud, surprised by the action. "I didn't see her pull out any Dust."

"It wasn't Dust," Weiss explained, keeping her eyes on the fight. "That was her Semblance. I've been keeping my eyes on the other teams in case we have to fight them, and her Semblance is able to light things ablaze through direct contact with her hands. Though, I can't figure out why she's keeping her distance from Sage though, she's a lot quicker than him, and she's had plenty of times to strike."

Before Blake could give a response, Scarlet crashed to the ground in front of them, only to roll out of the way as Arwan's blade was brought down on him, then jumped up immediately and made to swing his own sword at him. Arwan was quicker however, blocking the attack with his gauntlet, before swinging his hand, now glowing a deep purple, and attempted to grab at Scarlet, but was only able to briefly scrap at his face, before he was able to jump back. Scarlet's fall back had not been graceful, he stumbled backward, almost tripping backwards and bring his hand to the side of his head. Arwan swung his sword down overhead at Scarlet, and Scarlet was only able to recover just in time to fire off his hook shot onto a nearby light fixture, and yanking him out of the way as the sword came crashing down.

"And that's Arwan's Semblance," Weiss explained, answering Blake's unasked question. "Like Shaktari, his Semblance relies on physical contact, but instead he is capable of sapping away a person's Aura. The longer he takes hold, the more he takes."

Scarlet reached the wall, planting his feet firmly against it, before looking down below him and saw Shaktari jump backwards, putting distance between herself and Scarlet, so he unhooked himself and jumped down at her. She caught him in the last instant, and blocked his blow, and continued to do so with each following strike as he floated above her. Meanwhile Sage, seeing her distracted, readied himself to attack, but Arwan was able to get the drop on him, swinging his sword at his back, sending Sage into the wall. Sage was able to recover quickly enough to deflect Arwan's next blow, but not so much to avoid the open palm coming directly for his face, he could almost feel the hand grabbing at him-

Arwan grasped at nothing, and pulled his sword up to deflect the blow that came from the side, where Sage now stood.

"Okay, now I'm confused," Weiss said, eyes darting between the floating Scarlet and Sage's disappearing act.

"Those would be their Semblances," answered Blake. "I've been spending time with these guys recently, and theirs are fairly interesting. Scarlet can manipulate the gravity around his body, making it seem like he can fly to an extent, or at least appear floaty, or even let him do things like walk on walls, while Sage can stop time, though he can only do it for a single second, and he can only use it three or four times before it becomes too difficult to use. Five if he pushes it."

Shaktari blocked another blow and locked blades with Scarlet, pulling him closer to her and delivering a punch to his chest, which created a small explosion of fire that to, where he tumbled to the ground, but was able recover into a kneeling position.

"You annoying sack of pirate garbage," Shaktari growled, cracking her neck as she stared down Scarlet. "God, I hate you and your stupid twinkle toes-floaty bullcrap!"

"What?" Scarlet stood up and gave a nonchalant shrug. "A bit jealous that you can't do it, when all you can do is light things on fire? Yes, real impressive. I bet people love you are birthday parties."

"I'm going to love breaking you, I want you to understand that." She flicked a switch on her weapon and the mechanism on the blade began to generate electricity and hum, she grabbed the handle with both hands, before pulling the sword apart. There was now a sword in both hands, and four blades floating in the air between them. Scarlet never really liked magnets.

Sage and Arwan clashed their swords against one another, both managing to hold onto their positions.

"You are certainly strong, Sage Ayana," Arwan pushed his sword, causing Sage to struggle. "But are you strong enough? You can buy yourself a free moment to strike at me, maybe even do it a second time, but you and I both know that you would not be able to deal enough damage to me to pull this battle in your favor."

"I'm saving up." Sage held his position, even with the force bearing down on him.

"It won't matter in the end however." Suddenly Arwan's sword began to transform, the blade splitting in half width-wise, and folding itself over, creating an axe that had hooked Sage's sword under its own blade. With the new position, Arwan was able to easily knock Sage to the ground, and grabbed at his hair, sapping the energy from him before Sage retaliated by swings his sword at the offending arm, causing it to release him. Even though he had managed to quickly escape the grasp, he still felt drained.

That's when Scarlet was thrown at him from the side, knocking him down.

"Now having a good time either, huh boy?" Scarlet strained to ask as he pushed himself to his feet.

"You could stay that." Sage stood up, pushing Scarlet off of him. "I'm getting annoyed by this."

"Then I guess we just have to be smarter by how we go about this."

"Got any ideas then?" Scarlet asked, pushing himself to his feet and readying his weapons as as Shaktari and Arwan approached them.

"Maybe. Tell me, is that thing loaded up to fire?" Sage looked down to Scarlet's gun.

"Always. Why do you ask?"

"Good, then get her near me." He then walked away, strafing around KAOS half, getting Arwan's attention.

"What does that even mean? Ugh!" Suddenly Shaktari was on him, swinging at him with six swords against his sword, spinning in a dancing flurry of blades, giving him no room to attack or retaliate, each blow forcing him to take a step back. She then jumped back and let go of one of her swords, letting it float in the air, and she swung them down, having them act in a whip-like fashion, but Scarlet was able to roll out of the way and fired a Dust round, fire-based, at her. However she quickly threw up her free hand, and his shot, and the following explosion, was exploded harmlessly against her hand as she covered it in her own Semblance, protecting her. She was not prepared for when he fired another shot, this time the grappling hook, which attacked itself to the thick bracelets that adorned her sword-arm.

Quickly, Scarlet looked from Shaktari and over his shoulder to Sage, and his battle with Arwan, before back to his opponent. Not really knowing what he had planned, Scarlet jumped into the air, floating for a second before he began to fly backwards, changing the gravity around his body and refocusing it on the wall, taking a swearing Shaktari with him.

Sage felt his entire body shake as Arwan's axe came down on the flat side of his sword.

"Are you prepared to surrender now, Sage Ayana?" Arwan taunted, a think grin on his lips, a dark glow around his hand.

"You're still standing."

Arwan dryly laughed. "Excellent, it won't be any fun should you just give up." He then charged, and Sage made to defend himself

Suddenly Scarlet flew between them, forcing them both to stop, and for several seconds it was the cord of his weapon, and then a screaming and cursing Shaktari zipped by. As she was passing, Arwan had already made the move to grab him with his hand to drain Sage even further-

Everything stopped. Everything was absolutely frozen. Shaktari was still, flailing in the air, Arwan with his outreached arm, and Scarlet was already up-righting himself to land on the wall.

Sage on the other hand could move, and he only had one second to do so.

He dropped his sword, leaving it hanging in the air and in one fluid movement, detached the hook from Shaktari's bracelets and elbowed her backwards, right in front of Arwan.

Time then flowed again.

Arwan grabbed onto Shaktari by the throat, and immediately began to drain her Aura, to his own shock, and before he could even let go of her she began to panic at the feeling, and wildly swung her arms, grabbing at his cloak, setting it on fire. He then yelled in a panic, and ended up throwing her across the hall, but not before her array of swords came down on him, cutting him down him shoulder and chest before they went with her. The tall boy grabbed at his coat and tossed it off his shoulders before the fire could spread, but as he threw it in front of him, it suddenly came back at him and hit him to the floor, like a heavy solid weight, and as he tore through the flames, he could see that Sage had attacked him through the coat.

With the end of his sword pressed against the ground, Sage spun around, maneuvering so that it was now over his shoulder, and swung again, throwing his weight into the swing as he directed it back at Arwan, hitting him in his injured side, sending him flying.

"Goddammit Arwan," Shaktari seethed as she pushed herself to her feet unsteadily. "Goddamn idiot and his stupid aura-draining bullshit seriously what the f-"

"You certainly took a hit, didn't you?" She looked up to see Scarlet walk up to her, a smug look on his face. "Then again, trust me when I say what's a few bits of friendly fire, huh?"

"Shut your stupid mouth and your stupid accent..." she hissed. "Do not mess with me."

"I mean, did you see my team match?" He shook his head. "I really had to give Sun an ear-full about that."

"Shut up...!"

"Though, I saw what Sage pulled there, and I have to admit that was funny an-"

"I SAID-!" Shaktari then snapped her swords back into a single form, and she grabbed her hand around the blade's flat end, lighting the whole blade on fire. She then separated it again, and now she had six flaming swords. "DON'T SCREW WITH ME!"

"Uh oh..."

With a scream, Shaktari launched herself at Scarlet and swung the blazing barrage of sword, and he was forced to block at best he could, but the combined force of each weapon was too much, and when all six hit him at once, he was sent flying back, and Shaktari chased after him.

Scarlet crashed to the ground, tumbling to a roll, and looked up to see the looming form of Arwan, who had only just recovered from his own fall. He then raised his axe over his shoulder, Shaktari was charging after him, leaping into the air and ready for another attack, and off to the side he could see Sage running up to them, but he was too far away.

He then raised his gun and fired off the hookshot, spearing it through the air until was just outside Sage's grasp-

Time stopped, and Sage reached out to grab the hook and pulled hard, drawing Scarlet out from between Arwan and Shaktari. Then time resumed.

Arwan hit the ground, his axe leaving spider webs in the concrete, but as Shaktari came down on him, hitting him with all six flaming weapons, engulfing him in a blazing cloud. Screaming he pulled his axe from the ground, accidentally hitting Shaktari and sending her flying back into the wall. Stabbing his weapon to the ground, Arwan pushed himself to his feet, the muscles in his body beginning to scream out, when he felt something tug at his belt, and looking down he saw the hookshot hanging them. Looking up, he saw Scarlet standing next to Sage, and the redhead jumped into the air, lingering there for a moment before Sage swung his sword, allowing Scarlet to kick off the flat of the blade, sending him flying.

The rope tightened around Arwan's body as Scarlet flew around him, once, then twice, and finally a third time, before he landed back next to Sage, and held up his gun, before pushing a button. Arwan was then yanked into the air as the rope began to retract into the gun's hilt, and he could see Sage running towards him, sword ready to strike at him.

He tried to break free of the rope, to grab at his weapon, to try anything to defend himself from-

Suddenly, Sage was on him, now much closer then before, and slammed his sword into his side, sending him flying away from him and-

Sage was suddenly at him again, repeating the previous swing into Arwan's gut, and more force was added to his flight, crashing him even harder into a dizzy Shaktari.

The both struggled to look up to see Scarlet pointing the muzzle of his gun at them, before letting loose a shot of Dust and exploded into a large fireball when it hit them.

When the smoke cleared, they didn't get back up.

"Well, that was easy," Scarlet said, holstering his gun and sword, then turned around to Sage. "You okay mate, looks like you pushed yourself there."

"I'm fine," Sage said through heavy breathes, leaning against his sword. "Five times, five seconds of stopped time." He gave a groan as he rubbed his face, then pushed it through his hair. "Just need better time management."

"Good job you two!" Both Sage and Scarlet turned around to meet Blake and Weiss, both of who had been running up to them. "You managed to do it," Blake said, sly smile on her face, as she looked to te defeated forms of Shaktari and Arwan. "You took them down a peg or two."

"Great, now that's done, can we leave now?" Weiss said impatiently, her eyes darting around. "Someone would have heard that by now, and I do not wish to get into trouble because of this!" She then stormed away, leaving for the arena.

"She's right, at least about getting to see the match." Blake then took after Weiss, and Sage and Scarlet followed. "If we're lucky, we'll be able to catch the tail end of Sun and Neptune's match. I hope they're doing well."

"Don't worry about them," Scarlet laughed.

Sage gave his own nod. "Those two are doing fine. They're probably about to win any moment now."

000

Please review,

Mrfipp


	2. Doubles II: Match Up

Fipp: A bit soon for an update? Nope, wrote all of this stuff before hand because I wanted to get this all out in a short period of time.

 **Doubles II: Match Up**

"Dude, we're totally doing to lose."

The crowds around them cheered, eager to see the next match, thousands of people sitting in the stands, while millions more watched across the planet.

" **AND THE TEAMS FOR THE NEXT MATCH HAVE BEEN SELECTED!"** came Professor Port's voice, resonating through the entire arena. **"AND THIS IS CERTAINLY GOING TO BE INTERESTING AS BOTH TEAMS ARE FROM HAVEN ACADEMY!"**

"C'mon, don't worry about it Neptune," Sun said, slapping the distressed Neptune on the shoulder. "It's just another fight, so come one! Get excited!"

" **FIRST UP, WE HAVE SUN WUKONG AND NEPTUNE VASILIAS REPRESENTING TEAM SSSN OF HAVEN!"**

"YEAH!" Sun cheered, throwing his arms into the air, turning around on his feet to greet the audience. "I know I am!"

"Yeah, I see you are," Neptune growled. "How come you're not too worried? You do know who you're fighting, right?"

" **AGAINST TIAMAT** **KAMPF AND ONRAC KRAKEN OF TEAM KAOS, ALSO FROM HAVEN!"**

Neptune looked across the arena, to the two opponents they were slated to fight against, fellow students from their own school, who had done nothing but torment them from the moment they had entered their first year.

The boy was tall, with thick muscles, with chain mail clinging tightly to his chest, and a dark-blue long coat draped across his shoulders, as well as a large red pendant clasping it together at the base of his neck. He glared at the members of SSSN with an amused gleam in his red eyes and a matching grin, while cluster of thick blue dreadlocks flowed down his back, going past his shoulders. This was Onrac Kraken.

The second, the girl, stood there were her arms across her armored chest, dark green in color with a scale-like pattern covering it, matching thick leathers on her arms and legs, down to the winged helm she wore. Unlike her partner, her amber-colored eyes seemed bored and contempt, while her long dark green hair, fitted through the back of her helm, swayed slightly in the breeze. This was Tiamat Kampf, the leader of Team KAOS.

"Oh, them?" Sun pointed a thumb in the opponents' general direction. "Yeah, so? We can totally take them on."

"We've never taken them on and win, Sun!" Neptune yelled, arms waving about. "Seriously, how are you so nonchalant about this?"

"The Bluetard's right, you should be shaking in your boots," jeered Onrac, before he laughed loudly. "You losers don't stand a chance against us, so why don't you do us all a favor and just throw in the towel. Though, considering how well you did in your last match, I'm sure everyone is looking for more comedy."

"Bluetard?" Neptune narrowed his eyes, looking at Onrac's head in confusion. "Your hair's blue too!"

"Ignore him," said Sun. "He's just trying to get under your skin."

"And knowing your friend, it's working, Monkey," Kampf spoke up, her voice calm and collected.

Sun gave her a nasty glare. "Looks like you finally decided to speak up, huh Tiamat? Want to throw a few more insults my way? Come on, I know you have plenty of things up your sleeves! Or did you hit your head too hard on a ceiling or something?"

"How about I shut that mouth up for you if you're going to do nothing but talk?" Onrac snapped, taking a single step forward, but Kampf merely raised on arm in front of his chest.

"Words can only get you so far, Onrac, it's actions that end up meaning more, and considering that we are in a tournament match, this seems like the perfect place to settle any bad blood between us. Whatever the case, it seems like they're deciding the stage biomes now." She gestured up, to the holographic screen, pictures of the biomes flying by in random order before they were selected, almost too fast before they suddenly stopped. Around the circular platform they stood on, the out regions of the arena sunk into the floor, before they were replaced with the four new environments.

First was the cityscape, covered in concrete and metal railings, rubble strewn across it and the remains of a single building. The second was the anti-grav stage, a dozen platforms floating in circles, up and down, left and right, each one of varying sizes, and already several platform have begun a circuit around the arena. The third was a canyon dipping into the stage, with stones pillars rising above the ground levels, with a large number of crystals sticking out of the rock walls and floors. Then there was the fourth biome...

"Oh..." Neptune's entire face went pale and he felt his stomach drop to the floor. The fourth biome was the wetlands stages, a mostly bogged down area with tall grasses, and several muddy islands laid across the waters. Behind them, Ornac laughed loudly at the sight, even slapping his knees as he doubled over.

"Don't worry about it, Neptune." Sun placed a hand on Neptune's shoulder, giving it a tight squeeze. "It's only a quarter of the stage this time, so you have a lot more room to work with."

"Might as well be the whole stage though," Onrac chuckled out loud. "You're not going to last too long, Bluetard."

"God, do you ever shut up?" Sun sneered, turning around to face Onrac. "What about you?" he said to Kampf. "Any funny little lines you want to try out?"

"No," she said, turning away from the screen and back to him. "It's like I said, actions speak louder than words, so why would I waste my time speaking with you when I can simply defeat you?"

"You know what? You're right, enough talk." Reaching behind his back, he drew out his staff, quickly snapping in half, to the nun-chucks, and lazily spinning them around. "Right, Neptune?"

"Huh? Uh, yeah..." Neptune shook his head, putting his attention away from the swampland and to his opponents, bringing out his halberd, electricity zapping down the prongs. "You got it."

"You two won't last very long," Onrac said with a laugh, taking out his weapons, two swords with curved, jaded blades, one held in each hand.

Kampf chose to say nothing as she stood her weapon out, a spear longer than she was tall, deep grooves embedded into the thick blade which narrowed to a point.

" **NOW RUMOR HAS IT THAT THESE TEAMS HAVE SOMETHING OF A RIVIALLY GOING ON BACK HOME IN HAVEN ACADEMY!"** Port announced loudly. **"SEEMS ALMOST LIKE FATE THAT THEY ENDED UP FIGHTING HERE NOW."**

" **IT ALMOST DOES, BUT WHO WILL COME OUT OF THIS THE WINNER, AND WHO WILL BE THE LOSER? CERTATINLY WHATEVER DIFFERENCES THEY HAVE COULD BE RESOLVED THROUGH BATTLE RIGHT HERE AND RIGHT NOW!"** Oobleck's voiced raced through.

The four combatants tensed as the announcers spoke, each second drawing them close to the official start of the match, each moment, and despite the cheers of the audience, they could only focus on one another.

" **AND THE MATCH BEGINS IN 3... 2... 1... START!"**

The four charged at each other instantly, Sun and Kampf taking the leads in front of their partners. Kampf slid to a stop, standing her ground as she held her lance in front of her, ready to skewer Sun when he had gotten close enough to her, but instead of rushing her, he jumped to the right, leaving an opening for Neptune to fire off a charged blast at her. Seeing this she jumped into the air, clear over Sun and Neptune's head before landing behind the latter, and spun around, stabbing forward, but Neptune was able to raise his rifle in time to block the blow, crashing to the ground before rolling back up into a crouch and fired several more rounds. She was able to dodged to the side, before running forward, and Neptune quickly jumped up, changing the rifle into its trident form, and their weapons clashed.

Seeing this, Sun began to rush towards them, he heard the rattling of chains and rolled to the side, just as Onrac's sword came down where he had been, just to retract to where the wielder was, leaving enough slack to form a pair of decently-sized whips. Giving a wicked grin, Onrac raised his arms and swung again, slamming the chains to slam to the ground with a weighty crash, the hits become quicker with each succeeding hit. Sun's response to the taunting was to connect with weapons into a staff and charge at him, and Onrac pulled his weapons back, swinging in wide arcs, but Sun was able to leap over the blades and managed to close the distance between him and Onrac, but his blows with his staff were blocked as Onrac pulled back the chains, before crashing an elbow into Sun's face, sending him back. He managed to recover however, controlling the way he landed by spinning on his leg and swung again, landing a hit on Onrac's head, almost knocking him off his feet, but as he fell backwards he fired off his blade downwards, ricocheting it off the ground and upwards before he retracted it, getting itself caught around Sun's leg.

Sun cried out as Onrac pulled his weapon, sending Sun to the ground, before he heaved him up and began to spin him around, and soon Onrac was spinning around on like a top, Sun screaming out as he flew around, and with a shake to the weapon, the chain was let loose and Sun went flying into the air.

"KAMPF! NOW!" Onrac cried out as he ran towards where Kampf and Neptune were dueling.

Neptune spun his trident in his hands, electricity arcing from the blades, before swinging down at Kampf, who deflected the blow, leaving Neptune open, but instead of striking at him, she ran past, him, jumping into the air, and before Neptune could even wonder what had happened, Onrac was on him, swinging his swords down on him.

Kampf saw Sun fly through the air, and jumped straight at him, rearing her lance back in one hand, aiming carefully, and Sun, having regained some control, raised his weapon in front of him to defend himself as her lance struck him. Steam exploded from the top of the lance's handle, and the blade shot out, extending in length, and Sun was struck with the force of a jackhammer and sent flying back the way he came.

The world spun out of control as Sun desperately tried to find something that could help him, but then something caught his eyes, and putting a lot of hope on chance, he reached out his hand, just in time to grab a thick length of metal. He spun around the object several times before he came to a stop, landing on top of it, careful to keep his balance despite his dizzy state, before realizing that he was in the city biome, and that he had grabbed hold of the streetlight. From the edge of the biome he saw Kampf standing there, her weapon pulling itself back to its original length, and he gave her a wink. Collapsing his weapon to a compact form and attaching it to his belt, he leaped from the streetlight and grabbed hold of a ledge on the building and hoisted himself up, scaling up the wall swiftly and quickly until he had jumped up onto the roof.

"Hey Tiamat!" he called out, waving her down. "Nice view from up here!"

Kampf didn't respond, instead she ran up to the building, stopping in front of it before crouching down to her knees and one hand, then jumped straight up into the air, clearing the building and landed on the edge of the roof, causing Sun to jump back.

" **THAT WOULD BE AN EXCELLENT DISPLAY OF KAMPF'S OWN SEMBLANCE,"** Oobleck rattled on. **"THE ABILITY TO LEAP GREAT HEIGHTS AND DISTANCES! AN EXTRAORDINARY ABILITY!"**

" **YES IT IS, IN FACT IF BEING A HUNTRESS ENDS UP NOT WORKING FOR HER, SHE CAN ALWAYS TRY HER HAND AT BASKETBALL!"** continued Port.

"You were saying, Monkey?" Kampf asked, pointing her weapon at Sun.

Sun's shoulders slumped. "Yeah, I kind of forgot you could do that." Kampf then attacked him barely giving him a moment to defend himself.

000

Neptune grunted as he hit the ground hard, and quickly rolled out of the way as Onrac's boot came down on him, using the end of his weapon to pivot himself to his feet, and with it still embedded into the ground he jumped forward, using his weapon to pole vault and deliver a kick to Onrac's face. Instead of falling backwards however, Onrac braced himself and pushed forward, catching Neptune off guard and sending him forward, crashing to the ground. Standing up, he braced himself for another attack, but instead the two sword ends flew by either side of him, sticking into the ground, and he used the retraction speed of the weapons to send himself flying forward and slamming his entire body into Neptune, causing him to soar into the air.

He landed with a wet thud, and her felt something sticking at his face, and as he pushed himself up he felt something thick and wet between his fingers.

"Wha-?" Neptune looked down to his hands, to see them covered in mud, and upon further inspection he that it was smeared across his jacket and pants. "Oh, come on!" he yelled in disgust, trying not to touch the mud. "Do you realize how long it takes me to get my gear cleaned up! Seriously dude! It's pretty expensive too!" Turning around he intended up continue with his rant when he stopped, his blood freezing in his veins.

He was standing in the middle of wetlands, alone on one of the few islands dotted around the murky waters.

" **AND IT SEEMS LIKE NEPTUNE HERE IS IN TROUBLE,"** Port's voice boomed. **"IF YOU RECALL BARTY, IN HIS TEAM MATCH AGAINST NDGO, THE WATER IN THE ARENA GAVE HIM SOME TROUBLE, BUT WILL HE BE ABLE TO OVERCOME THIS FEAR THIS TIME AROUND?"**

Oobleck continued on . **"I WOULD HOPE THAT HE IS ABLE TO DO THAT SOON, AS HIS OPPONENT ONRAC HERE HAS A SEMBLANCE HERE THAT IS TAILOR MADE FOR THIS KIND OF SITUATION!"**

Shaking, Neptune looked to the edge of the biome, to see Onrac standing at the water's edge, and he didn't like the predatory look in his eyes, and the feeling only worsened as he stepped into the water, flopping in front first, and vanishing beneath the dark waters completely.

" **YES, WITH THE ABILITY TO CONTROL THE WATER THAT IS DIRECTLY TOUCHING HIS BODY, THIS WILL CERTAINLY NOT BE AN EASY THING TO OVER COME."**

Neptune gripped his weapon tightly in shaky hands, his heart beating so loudly he could hear it between his eyes as he tried to keep his eyes on the waters, feeling fear at every small wave. Suddenly the water in front of him exploded and Onrac breached the surface and shot forward at him, skidding along the water's surface until he reached the small island, and swung his weapons, knocking Neptune back into the mud, his head being submerged for a mere moment. He cried out as he pulled his head out and scrambled backwards, trying to breathe, to fill his lungs with lungs but each attempt at a breath became more difficult. Somewhere, Onrac created a giant splash and Neptune found himself soaked and freezing, and everything started to get fuzzy for him.

He looked up at the end of his weapon, using the pole to stand himself up, and wondered what he could do, there was no way he could zap the water, not with him soaked. He could fight in the water, he knew, on an intellectual level that the water would be thigh-deep at best, but every time he looked at the water he could only freeze up. Even if he could ignore this fear, that didn't change the fact that Onrac had a massive advantage in the water.

Really, this whole thing was just miserable for him.

000

Sun was having the time of his life.

Blocking a blow from her spear, Sun knocked it out of the way and aimed the end of his bow towards her head, only for her to spin the lance around, knocking it out of the way, only for him to retaliate in kind, and they banged both of their weapons together, sending sparks into the air. He swung his staff, intending to swipe Kampf's legs out from under her, but she had stabbed her lance down, catching the staff before turning it up to strike at him, but he rolled out of the way, breaking his staff into the gun-chucks and fired them at her. Her response to this was to fire her weapon, launching her into the air, and landing a safe distance from him.

He couldn't help himself from grinning, this was a tough fight, and he was loving it.

Then from the corner of his eye, he saw across the arena, and saw Neptune's position on the small island.

"Neptune..." Sun gave a worried grunt. "Gotta get over there-"

That was when Kampf rushed him, stabbing at him with her lance, and using the power thrust to send him back into the air.

He screamed aloud, tumbling in the air, and would have crashed into the ground far below, if it had not been for the floating platform that had happened to be floating by.

"Dammit," he growled to himself, pushing himself to his feet. He looked to the platform, floating away from Kampf's position on the building, before turning around and looking back down to where Neptune was, glad to see that the platform was moving to the overhead space above him, but he still didn't know how to help from up here.

Suddenly, and idea came to mind. It was a stupid idea, but it might work, he thought.

"Hey Kampf!" he cried out loud. "You really need to start charging for your services as air travel! I gotta say, I've ridden airplanes with bumpier flights then that!"

From her spot on the building, Kampf jumped from the ledge and onto a platform that was passing by, then onto another, before landing on the same one he was on.

"Hey, think if you wind that thing up just tight enough, you can send me back to Haven when this is all done? Save me the time?" Sun the laughed. "Then again, I think that might be a little difficult since you're heading home before us, hell, you'll probably end up watching us in the final match from some cheap cabin!"

"You really need to learn when to stop talking, Monkey," Kampf strained out. She dashed forward, and stabbed at Sun, forcing him to flip backward and try and block the next stab with an upward swing of his staff, causing the end of her spear to fly upward and over her shoulder, stabbing in the floor. Seeing a moment to strike, Sun made his move, but Kampf fired off her spear against the platform, sending her flying forward into Sun, knocking him over as she sailed over him, skidding against the ground, aimed to strike him, but he rolled out of the way, and to her surprise, he wrapped his tail around the shaft of the weapon, pulled it towards him, throwing her off balance, leaving her open to to being shot in the side by a shotgun blast

Sun released her weapon as she went tumbling, but she was able to control her fall and jabbed the end into the platform, firing it off again, launching herself into Sun with a quick kick that send him flying near the edge of the platform. By the time her lance had retracted, Sun had already jumped to his feet. He looked from her, and to the edge of the platform to the ground below him and gave a grin as he turned back to her, making her wonder what it was he was planning, he then charged her, keeping his body low, as she held her land up in both hands charged him. They were closing in on each other, but Sun suddenly swung his staff down, the end exploding on contract and sent himself vaulting over Kampf, forcing her to slide to a stop and follow him as he did so.

He then crashed unceremoniously to the ground in a heap and didn't get back up. For a moment, Kampf stood confused, wondering what this was, before instinct took over and she jumped into the air towards him, arm pulling back her lance, then firing it. She rocketed downwards, aiming for him, but at the last moment he jumped up and dodged out of the way, and Kampf's lance pierced through the platform, and the entire structure bucked and shook.

" **OH MY,"** Port's voiced boomed. **"IT WOULD SEEM THAT KAMPF'S ATTACK WAS ABLE TO CAUSE ENOUGH DAMAGE TO THE ENGINES ON THE UNDERSIDE OF THE PLATFORM, AND NOW IT LOOKS LIKE ITS LOSING AIR!"**

" **WELL PETER I HAVE TO SAY THAT IS GOING TO BE A VERY COSTLY MOVE. I MEAN IN ACTUAL MONEY, SINCE THOSE THINGS ARE NOT VERY CHEAP TO BEGIN WITH."**

Keeping her footing as best she could, Kampf pulled her lance out from the floor, sparks coming out from out of the whole she left behind, the whole thing shaking and rocking as it descended.

"Monkey," she growled, watching over as she saw Sun leap onto a passing platform. Smoke had already began to pour from underneath it as she ran towards the edge, jumping into the air.

000

Neptune slammed into the mud, cursing under his breath as he pushed himself up, trying his best to not look at the water around him, but still trying to keep an eye on Onrac as he breached the water to get in attacks. He was playing with him, Neptune realized, and he really hated them.

"Wait," he said to himself, looking around, not noticing Onrac slowly rise from the water behind him. "What did the announcers just say?"

This was when the platform crashed into the water, creating a massive wave that quickly covered the biome.

Neptune's eye widened at the sight of the wave, about to crash down on him. "I'm going to kill Sun."

The wave hit, and Neptune found himself tumbling in the water as he washed out of the wetlands before he was flooded downwards and into canyon, before finally coming to a stop as his back slammed against a wall.

He chocked, coughing the water out of his lungs as he struggled to stand up, pushing himself up against the stone wall, though he recoiled when he felt something stab into his palm. Grunting, he pulled his hand away and looked back down to the wall, to see a sharp clear crystal sticking out of it, and looking around, he cold see numerous crystals, all of varying sizes and textures, sticking out from the columns and wall, each one giving off a small dull light.

" **AND IT LOOKS LIKE NEPTUNE AND ONRAC HAVE BEEN FLUSHED INTO THE DUST CRYSTAL CANYON!"** boomed Oobleck's voice.

" **THIS COULD CERTATINLY BE INTERESTING, SINCE THE DUST CRYSTALS THAT LITTER THIS ENVIROMENT WILL GENERATE AN EXPLOSIVE FIELD IF THEY ARE EXPOSED TO ANY SORT OF ENERGY SOURCE BASED ON REFINED DUST!'** Port's voice continued.

"Great," Neptune groaned, looking down to his halberd, the electrical attribute shut down for the time. "Explosive crystals all around, and I'm soaked too, just great." He shook his arms trying to get as much water off himself as he possibly could, though at the very least he felt better since he had to deal with much less water, only an inch or so at his feet. It was then he noticed that the water was flowing away from him, and curiously he looked to the side just in time to see Onrac flowing around the corner, his body coated in water, coming right for him.

"What's up Bluetard?" Onrac laughed, swinging one of his chainswords down on him, him bringing his weapon up to shield himself from the blow, and while he managed to block the blow, Onrac gave a kick, sending a pulse of water right towards him that struck him in the chest, sending him flying back into a pillar. With him against the wall, Onrac flowed right towards him, swords retracted to finish him off personally, and had been right on top of him when Neptune pulled up his rifle, pointing it right at him. Onrac stopped, the rifle pointed right at his chest, and looked down at Neptune. "Gonna shoot me?" he asked, grinding his teeth. "We're both soaked, so you'll just end up hurting yourself too, and it wouldn't even be worth it since one shot from that won't have enough juice to take me out, you'll need a fully charged melee shot." He grinned. "What are you planning, Bluetard?"

"Oh, I have a plan, a really good one too.," Neptune lied, breathing heavily. "I just need a few more things to happen before I put them into motion." He gave a shrug. "Then you'll lose."

Leaning forward, Onrac hissed. "You're lying, I can tell. You don't have anything planned, I can just end you right now."

"Are you sure? Don't even want to see what I have cooked up? Is it because you know you'll lose?" Neptune gave a smirk.

"Me? Lose to you? Oh my god, you really think that you can do anything to beat me?" Onrac mocked.

"What? Scared that I can actually do it? If you think you have me beat, no matter what I do, then give me thirty seconds to set it up, and then we'll see what happens. You know, unless you're a coward? I mean, you can't possibly lose to me, right?"

It was a tense moment, and he thought that Onrac would end this right right here, but to his surprise, Onranc retreated, pulling his weapons away and gave him a hard stare. "Thirty seconds starts now, Bluetard."

After he had stood up, Neptune ran, and Onrac started with one.

000

"Dammit dammit dammit!" Neptune swore to himself, jumping behind a pillar. He had no idea what he was doing. "Gotta think, gotta think fast." He dropped to one knee and pulled out his rifle and gave it a quick look over, before deciding to reload, taking the nearly empty cartridge out before replacing it with a full one. "What can I do, what can I do...?" He looked around the area, hoping to see something that could help him, but all he could see was rock, and explosive dust crystals. Nothing around that could help him at-

He then had an idea. Looking down the nearly empty cartridge, he turned it over in his hand before looking to the rock wall next to him, and weighted the pros and cons of this idea. It would require a great sacrifice on his part, but he saw that he had no choice.

Standing up, he shifted his rifle to it halberd formed and swung at the wall.

000

Onrac counted to thirty and began to flow forward, quickly floating along the narrow passageways, trying to locate Neptune and to finish him off, but the he just couldn't find the coward. Then something caught his eye, a shade or red, hiding behind a corner, and with a wide grin, Onrac quickly descended on the idiot.

But there was no one there, it was just Neptune's jacket, draped over a rock. Cautiously, Onrac used one of his swords to pick up the garment to examine it carefully, when he heard a small crackling noise, and upon further look he saw something sticking out of the side pocket; an energy cartridge with a rock jammed into the side of it, and a large chunk of Crystal Dust wedged in there as well. A spark of energy arced from the damaged cartridge and to the crystal, causing an explosion or electricity.

Onrac yelled back as he was thrown back by the blast, sending him into a wall hard, the water falling away from his body. He tried to push himself but he found his whole body stiff, his muscles nearly paralyzed, taking an explosion from that close, through the watery protection around his body had not been an easy thing for him to take, and while he knew it would take him for his aura to heal his injuries.

Suddenly the air was pierced by a sharp whistle, and looking up he saw Neptune standing on the lip of the canyon, goggles over his eyes and his jacket gone, leaving him in his white dress shirt. "Even though I have back ups of that jacket, I'm still billing you!" he called out. "Oh, by the way, I've got you beat!"

"What did you say, Bluetard?" Onrac screamed, pushing himself to his feet, the water flowing back up his legs. "It's not over yet!"

"Yeah, it kind of is, just look where you are idiot!"

"Huh?" Onrac looked up and around himself, and to his horror he saw that the wall he was standing next to had dozens of large crystals sticking out of it.

Neptune raised his rifle. "Suck it Bluetard!" He then fired several shots, not at Onrac, but at the crystals around him.

"Son of a bit-" Onrac groaned, not having a chance to finish his statement.

The explosion was large, filling the whole canyon with a electrical haze that and a cloud that reached into the air.

" **UNBELIEVABLE!"** Port laughed. **"THAT HAS TO BE THE LARGEST EXPLOSION WE'VE SEEN IN THIS YEAR'S MATCHES."**

" **AND WITH THAT, WE HAVE TO SAY THAT ONRAC KRAKEN'S AURA HAD REACHED INTO THE RED, SO HE IS NOW NO LONGER TO CONTINUE!"** Oobleck continued.

The crowed cheered as Neptune released the breath he didn't know he was holding, their applause filling the air. It was being aimed at him, he knew it, so he spread his arms and bathed in the praise.

"Thank you, thank you so very much ladies in gentleman! Ladies especially!" he said, enjoying the attention. "It's so very nice to finally get the-Sun!" He broke out into a sprint, running to the middle of the area, eyes cast high to the floating platforms, trying to figure out where Sun was fighting. "How am I supposed to even get up there?!"

000

Sun found himself leaping from one platform to the next, landing into a roll, only for Kampf to land in front of him.

"Hey," Sun nonchalantly, gesturing to the board. "Looks like my partner just beat your partner." He then gave an over-exaggerated shrug. "Now, who would have thought that could have possibly happen?"

"To a degree, I'm not surprised, Monkey," Kampf answered coolly. "Onrac was always a bit arrogant, so him losing to someone weaker is not much of a surprise."

"Geez, what's with the past tense? He's just knocked out, not dead. You know, you really are a cheery kind of girl."

"And after I beat you, I'll just take care of him next." She raised her lance, pointing it directly at him. "It honestly won't take too long."

"Now who's sounding a bit arro-WHOA!" Sun barely had to to block the stab from Kampf's lance before she pulled away and spun in a circle, catching Sun by his legs, knocking him to the ground. As she completed the spin, she ended up swing the lance in an upward arc, aiming for him on the downswing, but Sun pushed himself up by his arms, back flipping out of the way and swung his staff down, pinning the lance to the ground, but Kampf was able to forced her weapon up, almost knocking Sun's out of his grip and mad for another attack. It was interrupted however as Sun broke his staff in half, changing it back into the gun-chuck and blocked the blow, before going in on his own series attacks. Sun swung Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang around, but Kampf was able to block each blow, resulting in a shower of sparks and gunfire, before Kampf stabbed the end of her lance into the ground and fired her, rocketing her into the ground. As Sun looked up, he saw that Kampf had launched herself onto the under surface of a platform that had floated above them, hanging upside-down for a mere moment, before she jumped down, lance aiming right at him. He swung upwards, both ends of his nun-chucks hitting the blade, creating an explosion of fire, but he was still knocked down, though this had resulted in Kampf being thrown back as well.

Kampf was quick to recover, jumping to her feet to see the sight before her; Sun pinned to the ground, the lance going through the collar of his shirt, sticking him to the ground as he tried to struggle to pull it out.

"As I said, this didn't take long, Monkey." Kampf crouched down, one hand on the ground, then leaped high into the air, and as she came down she aimed for Sun, the distance between them rapidly decreasing.

Her feet came down, landing with enough force to dent the platform deeply, but Sun was not there.

"Damn, that was real close."

Grunting to herself, Kampf looked over to the side and saw Sun pushing himself up from the ground, his weapons clutched in his hands, and his torso bare.

The crowd let out a wild applause and cheers.

"Such a slippery little one you are, Monkey," Kampf hissed, taking her lance out of the platform, removing the white shirt tatters from the blade.

Sun merely laughed, a wide grin on his face. "Oh man, this is great! You almost got me there! Seriously, if I didn't rip out of my shirt just then, I think I'd be toast!"

She rushed him again, and they continued with their brief exchange of blows and parries, leaving no room for the other one to attack, until they both locked their weapons with one another, neither one giving way before Sun fired off the end of his staff, giving him enough time to rear his head back and headbutting Kampf in the forehead, sending her reeling for a moment, dislodging her helm, and sending it flying over the end of the platform.

She was quick to turn this around however as she stabbed the lance at Sun's feet, firing it off, the force sending him into the air. As he flew over her she jumped, right into him, digging the end of her lance into his raised arm guards, their altitude rising with each moment.

"It ends, Monkey!" she shouted, firing off her lance, but then something tugged at her leg, throwing her aim off as it pulled at her, and instead of sending Sun higher into the air, it merely glanced off his armor, and they both went spinning. Looking down she saw something long and yellow coiled around her leg.

His tail! It was wrapped around her leg! Before she could think of anything to do, Sun swung a nun-chuck at her lance-wielding arm, forcing her to drop her weapon, and she tumbled away from Sun.

As she tried to right herself in the air, to try and gain some control over the situation, she caught sight of Sun, her lance in his hand, aiming it right at her. There was no time for her to act as he struck her in the abdomen, firing off the weapon and blasting her down with the force of a truck. With a shout she crashed to the ground, breaking the tiles of the neutral stage and sending shards of debris into the air. Grunting, Kampf pushed herself up to her feet, struggling to stand up, her aura flaring up as she tried to assess the situation, trying to figure out a proper counter move for when Sun landed back on the ground, picking up her fallen weapon on the ground, but the opportunity to think never came.

Neptune then jumped into view, swinging his trident downwards on her, sending a blast of lighting through her body, though she managed to stand her ground, withstanding the current burning through her body. She tried to attack him, but he was quick, able to jump out of the way of her attack, and before she was able to get in another there was a sharp pain going through her skull.

Sun had fallen to the ground, and grabbing his staff in both hands he had struck her on the crown of her head, shattering her aura with a shot from the end of his staff, collapsing her to the ground as he landed behind her.

"Hey, Tiamat?" he called out, spinning on one foot to see the leader of Team KAOS, struggling to get to her feet. "You were right when you said this was over, and you should know something." Looking over her shoulder, Kampf gave him a hateful glare. "I'm not just any monkey, I'm Sun Wukong!" he proudly declared, slamming a fist into his bare chest. "And I'm the goddamn Monkey King!"

Kampf then collapsed to the ground, and the buzzer sounded, declaring her defeat.

" **AND TIAMAT KAMPF IS DOWN FOR THE COUNT, TAKING TEAM KAOS OUT OF THE TOURNAMENT, AND WITH THAT TEAM SSSN MOVE ONTO THE SINGLES ROUNDS!"**

"HAHAHA! Yes!" Sun cried out, pumping his arms into the air as the crowd cheered and roared through the stadium.

"Dude, we won!" Neptune cheered, running up to Sun before coming to a stop. "Our team got into the singles!"

"I know!" he laughed. "Hey, you think anyone would mind if I did backflip."

"I think you've earned a backflip or two."

000

"Told you they'd win," said Sage, arms crossed over his chest, having arrived a few minutes earlier with Scarlet, Weiss and Blake.

"Oh, I knew they'd do it, never doubted them for a moment," Scarlet said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"It was touch and go there for a few moments there, but they pulled it off. They earned that," Weiss said, a slight smile on her face. "How many backflips has he done so far?"

"Why's his shirt off?" Scarlet asked, tilting his head to the side.

"Honestly, I'm not surprised," Sage added, simply.

"Does he have no decency?" Weiss groaned in frustration. "Blake, can you please talk to him about-Blake?"

"..."

"Blake? BLAKE!"

"What!" Blake suddenly snapped to attention, taking her eyes away from the arena. "I was-uh, just admiring their victory dances..."

"You are shameless," Weiss sneered. "You were even leering!"

"Was not."

"Come on," Sage said, walking away from the group. "Let's go and congratulate them on this."

He walked away, and the others followed.

000

"I can't believe they actually won," Emerald said in utter disbelief.

Mercury continued eating away at his popcorn. "Neither can I, but I have to say, that was a pretty good fight." He then turned to his side to their much small companion, who was giving her own round of applause. "What about you? What'd you think about it?"

'Nestle Mint' gave an enthusiastic smile and nod, before she returned to her 96 oz soda.

"But they were supposed to lose!" Emerald hissed.

"Don't make a scene Emerald," Cinder said, fingers taping away at her scroll.

"Sorry, Cinder," Emerald said despondently.

"Yeah, Emerald, wouldn't want to attract any unwanted attention, would you?" Mercury said with a smirk, while from behind him, Nestle leaned out with her own wink.

Emerald was left to seethe where she sat.

Cinder chose to ignore them. "While it's true they were put in a match they had a high chance of losing, their victory here means nothing to us." Her fingers swiped on the scroll's screen, and several profile pictures came into view. "But there's only one match left, and I've saved the best for last. I hope that it's something that the audience will love, since this will be the last legitimate fight in the tournament before things start to go oh so terribly wrong."


	3. Doubles III: Final Round

Fipp: This is the last chapter of this short story. I took nearly a month in writing it, but I had lots of fun with it regardless, so I hope that you readers got at least some enjoyment out of this. I will say though that I feel that this fight may be a bit weak when compared to the other two since I really just wanted to make something up for SSSN because they kind of got the short end of the stick in terms of use this volume (to the point where I wonder why they were even there.)

Anyway, on this goes.

 **Doubles III: Final Round**

" **THIS IS IT LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, THE FINAL MATCH OF THE DOUBLES FIGHTS, WE'VE SEEN PLENTY OF BATTLES UP UNTIL THIS POINT, AND AFTER THIS WE ENTER SINGLES ROUNDS, WHERE SEVEN CONTESTANTS HAVE ALREADY HAVE ALREADY MADE IT, BUT WHO WILL BE OUT EIGHTH AND FINAL?"** Port's voiced echoed through the entire arena, rising above the cheers of the crowds.

"It's totally going to be us, you know?" Nora asked, a wide grin on her face. "Well, you actually, because I really don't see how anyone can beat us. Seriously, anyone who saw out last match should be wetting their pants!"

"I think we should wait to see what our opponents are capable of before we make any judgments," Pyrrha said sincerely, hands folded in front of her. "With that in mind, I must admit that I've not taken taken the time to look up all the other teams before we made it to the doubles, so I don't know what sort of skill sets they may possess."

Nora rolled her eyes. "Probably just some scrubs. Like I said, there's no way we can lose!" she cheered, arms pumped into the air. "Unless-" She froze. "You know, unless we do, and it ends up being real bad on our end." Her arms dropped, curling up to her chest. "It ends up being utterly humiliating, and everyone will laugh at us, and then it'll be uploaded to the internet where it will be shown to people for generations to come." She swallowed her own tongue. "No worries, huh?"

Pyrrha raised a hand, aiming to put it on her shoulder in a comforting manner, but hesitated in doing so. She worried about what would be an appropriate amount of contact to help her worrying friend, her hand hovering over Nora's shoulders, hoping she didn't notice how long it was taking for her to do something. That would be a terribly awkward, and she didn't want to have to deal with that. Though, the longer she held it there, she began to worry about that looking awkward, but didn't know if she should put it down.

" **THE FINAL FIGHT TODAY WILL HAPPEN BETWEEN PYRRHA NIKOS AND NORA VALKYRIE, REPRESENTING TEAM JNPR OF BEACON!"** Oobleck's voice called out, causing both of them to sigh in relief. **"AND THEIR OPPONENTS WILL BE ORSTON LEO AND SMOFF TABERU OF TEAM GOSP** (Gospel) **, FROM VACUO!"**

Pyrrha and Nora looked across the field to their two opponents.

Both opponents towered over Pyrrha, making Nora seem insignificantly sized in comparison.

The first one, Orston Leo, wore tarnished silver leggings and matching arm guards, a torn leather coat with draping armored tailcoat hanging low behind him. His face was deeply tanned and marred with scars, his hair was a deep crimson, thick and red, trailing down his back, to the point where Pyrrha wondered if he wasn't human, but rather a faunas. Lion, maybe? In his hand was a long spear ending in a sharp blade.

Even though Orston was taller then either of them, Smoff Taberu managed to easily one-up him. He was a mountain of a person, with a massive belly, wearing bronzed pants and no shirt, sans the spiked pauldrons on his shoulders and biceps. On his face was a large predatory grin beneath a bald head, and sharp eyes that bore right down onto him. The most eye-catching thing however was colossal hammer he held, the head of it easily the size of his own body.

"You think they heard me talking smack about them?" Nora leaned over, whispering to Pyrrha. "I mean, I'd hate if it someone called me a scrub right in front of my face."

Pyrrha glanced over over to their opponents. "I wouldn't certainly hope not."

"Good, because that would mean that they heard me crying too."

"Um, hello there!" Pyrrha gave a nervous, albeit friendly wave to Orston and Smoff. "I certainly hope that regardless of the outcome to this battle, we each give this everything he have and try and make it a good fight."

Neither one responded, only glared, and Pyrrha was left wondering if she had offended them somehow.

"Hey! You gonna answer or stand there and act like rude idiots!" Nora shouted loudly.

"Nora!" Pyrrha gasped.

"What?"

Still, there was no response from either of them.

Nora blew a raspberry in response, while Pyrrha resisted the urge to shift her weight between her feet.

Random biome selection then began.

000

"YEAH! C'MON PYRRHA! C'MON NORA!" Jaune shouted, clapping as hard as he could before turning to his side. "Hey, Ren, can you do that whistle thing? You know, that people do with their fingers?"

Ren paused from his own slow series of claps, and shook his head. "Sorry, I can't."

To the other side a sharp whistle pierce the air, almost making them jump in their seats. "Uh, thanks Yang."

"No problem," Yang said, casually waving him off. "Anything to support our girls."

Between them, Ruby bounced excitedly in her seat. "I can't wait for this to start! It's going to be so great!" She settled down just enough to turn around to Jaune. "Hey, what made you guys decide to send Pyrrha and Nora into the doubles?"

"Hm?" Jaune leaned back in his seat. "Well, Pyrrha was the obvious choice, since tournaments are her kind of thing, she's been doing them since she was a freshman in Sanctum and ended up beating down seniors. As for who her partner was going to be, at first we considered me to go with her and-" He then suddenly burst out in uncontrollable laughter, almost doubling over in his seat, causing Ruby confusion until he eventually stopped. "Oh man, I really wanted to get through that without laughing. Like I could fight in something like this, I'd get tossed out in a second." Ruby sent disproving look his way, not liking the self-deprecating comment. "But yeah, we weighted the pros and cons between Nora and Ren, looking at it from every angle, looking at past battles and-"

"Nora kept pushing for it, and I really didn't," Ren said simply, glancing over to them.

"Well, yeah there's that too..." Jaune replied, a bit too lowly.

From her seat, Yang leaned forward, looking over to the other blonde. "Why do I feel like there's a 'but' at the end of that?"

"Well, Nora's the second strongest person on our team, and she has one of the highest grimm kill counts out of everyone in our year. It's just, hmm, how do I put this?" Jaune anxiously scratched the backside of his head.

"Nora needs to be babysat sometimes," Ren added.

"Exactly!"

"What do you mean she needs to be babysat?" Ruby asked, briefly looking back down to the arena.

"Nora can sometimes get overexcited in a fight," Ren answered. "On a few occasions this ended up with her not really paying attention to her surroundings, so when she lets loose it tends to end poorly. There was a reason Goodwitch yelled at us so much."

"There were a lot of smashed up walls and trees," Jaune said absentmindedly. "Normally, Ren's mostly on top of her, and I've gotten a good hold of her, the problem is that Pyrrha is a bit too passive. If she sees Nora about to do something that might not be a good idea, I'm afraid she might not tell her "No Nora, don't do that thing you're about to do". She has trouble when it comes to being direct with people."

"WOW!" Yang gave an over over-exaggerated gasp. "Are you saying Pyrrha, our Pyrrha, has trouble telling people how she feels even though it's obvious to everyone else except the person she want to tell it to? Oh my god! Who would have known?"

"Uh, yeah?" Jaune looked over to Ruby, shooting her a curious look. Ruby's answer was to look equally confused and give him a unknowing shrug.

000

The stages rose up from beneath the arena, forming the battle grounds that they would fight on. There was the icy biome, covered in sheets of icy and giant frozen boulders, then the grassland, the grass having regrown from the previous fight on it, and the desert biome, the sandstone mountain standing tall. The fourth one to appear was one filled with tall stone pillars, wide enough to hide behind and lose opponents in them, Pyrrha remembered how in a previous battle someone was able to dart between them and eliminated two members of the other team.

"I say we do the thing."

"What? What 'thing' are you talking about?" Pyrrha asked, looking down to Nora.

"You know, our team-attack-thing! What was it called again?" Nora mumbled to herself. "Spartan Thunder or something like that?"

"I'm not too certain about this Nora," Pyrrha offered, thinking back to previous attempts. "We haven't really found a right balance between what we put into that, it's tricky for me to apply the right force, and Jaune says that we shouldn't try it in an actual fight until we figure out how to do it properly-"

"Yeah, yeah, but it'll be cool though right?" Nora eagerly began to bounce on her feet. "They'll never expect us to come right out of the gates swinging!"

"I don't know..."

"Please!"

"...Fine. Let's set it up." Pyrrha looked down to her weapon uncertainly.

Nora pumped a fist. "Yes!" Nora unfolded Magnhild and placed the barrel on the round while she hoped on top on it quickly, and gave Pyrrha a nod.

Returning a nod of her own, though without the confidence Nora had shown, Pyrrha held up Miló and Akoúo in defensive positions.

" **AND THE MATCH BEGINS IN 3... 2... 1... GO!"**

Pyrrha put focus onto Nora's hammer, on the metal of the weapon and shot Nora forward, aiming her directly at Orston and Smoff. Nora gripped the handle tightly as she soared through the air, the ideas of how this was going to happen running through her head.

The idea of this attack was for Pyrrha to aim her for the opposition, and Nora to fire off Magnhild, boosting her at and even quicker, and launching her into an even faster, more forceful speed, and she would fire again, sending her into a spiral, aiming the head of her hammer right down onto someone. That was how Jaune had explained it to them, and during training they had come close so many times to do it right that she could almost taste it! If they managed to pull this off they could easily take out either one of them, or at the very least cripple their aura. There was no way this could fail.

Nora pressed the trigger to fire off the grenade, but nothing happened as the trigger refused to budge, she tried to maneuver her weapon in some way, but it was stiff beneath her hands. This was the main problem with this plan, she remembered, that it was difficult for her to really control her weapon while it was under Pyrrha's influence, giving her no room to act under her own accord. She tried to fiddle with it more, working frantically, but the moment she was out of Pyrrha's range, and control shifted back to her, she ended up overcompensating and ended up spinning out of control when she fired. Tumbling through the air was was unable to stop herself from slamming right into Smoff's hammer, before being struck by Orston's spear. To her delight however, lightning poured from the spear and into her and she felt the power flow through her, and it was great. She'd not started out well, but even as she was thrown further back she knew she could turn this around, bounce back and-

She then hit a wall and fell to the ground, then a loud blaring horn sounded through the air. When she looked up, she saw that to her horror she was outside the ring.

" **I HAVE TO SAY, THAT MUST BE THE QUICKEST RING OUT I HAVE EVER SEEN IN ALL THE YEARS I'VE BEEN WATCHING THIS TOURNAMENT!"**

" **MOST CERTATINLY A NEW RECORD IF I HAD TO SAY SO MYSELF!"**

Laying her head down, Nora wondered if it was possible for her to bury straight through the concrete and bury herself.

"I think I'm actually going to die of embarrassment."

000

"Wow," Yang said, her mouth open in shock. "That, that was certainly a thing."

"I'll go get Nora and see if she's okay," Ren said, getting up from his seat and making a quick exit.

"You do that Ren," Jaune replied, head in his hand, even though Ren had already left hearing range. "You know, I was actually worried that exact thing would happen."

"Pyrrha's still in though," Ruby interjected, hopefully. "She can still pull this off."

"I know she can." Jaune pushed himself up from his slouch to sit up straight. "If anyone's going to be able to do this, it's her."

000

" **THIS IS GOING TO BE A FIGHT TO SEE, DON'T YOU AGREE BARTY?"**

" **YES IT IS! WITH MISS VALKYRIE OUT OF THE MATCH, MISS NIKOS NOW FINDS HERSELF ALONE AGAINST TWO OPPONENTS."**

" **CAN THE FOUR TIME WINNER OF THE MISTRAL REGIONAL TOURNAMENT BE ABLE TO HOLD HER OWN HERE?"**

" **WE'RE ABOUT TO FIND OUT!"**

Orston and Smoff looked away from the direction Nora fell and turned back to Pyrrha, standing alone.

"Hello..." She gave a small wave, giving off a nervous smile.

Orston merely stared her down, a deep frown etched onto his face, while the toothy grin on Smoff's face only seemed to widen.

The spear-wielder was the first to act, dashing right towards her, spear aiming right for her.

Pyrrha's expression shifted instantly, changing from uncertain to sharp determination as she pulled up both of her weapons.

Her shield went up, stopping Orston's blade and grazing it off to the side, as she shifted Miló into its spear form and made to stab at him, but Orston pulled his weapon back and blocked the blow, sending it down and to the side, but Pyrrha shifted back to the sword, shortening the length of the blade and freeing it from its position and tried to attack him again. Orston jumped back before the blade could connect and rebounded back at her, swing his spear in the blink of an eye and stabbed forward, but Pyrrha narrowly dodged the lunge, the spear going between the space her torso and her arm. For a moment she had prepared to go on the offensive, but a bright yellow crackling energy began to surround the spear, and fearing what it might do she tightly gripped her shield and used her semblance on it, pulling her away from the spear just as it exploded in a burst of lightning.

She landed a fair distance from Orston, out of the range of his spear, but before she could collect herself she heard a deep laugh and a shadow growing over her. Jumping to the side and landing in a roll, she had just avoided just as Smoff's hammer came down on her, crushing the ground beneath the force behind its immense weight. It then began to shift and pushed towards her as the giant pushed forwards with the intent to steam roll her down, the act caught her by surprise so she dropped her shield to the ground before jumping onto it, and crouching using her semblance to push her back and away from the hammer, before it came to a sudden stop and raise into the air. As it was lifted up, Pyrrha saw Orston standing beside Smoff, his spear wrapped in lightning, and with a sudden thrust the bolt shot from the sharp blade, aiming directly for her. Kicking off her shield, Pyrrha flipped backwards, avoiding the strike and landed on her feet, pulling her shield up to her arm, just in time to to block another blow from Orston, the force behind it enough to push her back slightly.

" **ALREADY WE SEE THAT PYRRHA IS HAVING TROUBLE WITH DEALING WITH BOTH ORSTON AND SMOFF."**

" **FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO SAW GOSP'S TEAM MATCHES, THE TEAM WORK THESE TWO HAVE WERE ABLE TO MAKE QUICK WORK OF TWO OF THE OPPOSING TEAM, BARELY GIVING EITHER OF THEM TIME TO CATCH THEIR BREATH OR COUNTER IN ANY MATTER."**

" **BUT PYRRHA HERE IS NOW FACING THEM ALONE, HOW MUCH WILL SHE BE ABLE TO FAIR AGAINST THEM? WILL SHE SOMEONE BE ABLE TO PULL OUT A VICTORY, OR DOES THE INVINCIBLE GIRL FALL HERE?"**

Gripping her equipment tightly in her hands, Pyrrha looked between Orston and Smoff, both of whom were charging her directly, and instead of fighting them directly, she chose to turn around and run away from them, heading directly for the ice biome, with the two right on her tail. She rolled out of the way of an oncoming bolt of lightning and landed on the ice, sliding down the field before she stabbed the end of her spear into the surface, as she scrapped to a stop. Careful to keep her balance, she applied her semblance to the metal in her boots and securing herself to the ground and she applied downward pressure, this sort of thing would cost her mobility, but it would keep her grounded and secured on the slippery surface. Orston and Smoff stood at the edge of the stage, carefully looking around where they could safely enter and fight her, before giving a brief look to the other.

Smoff raised his hammer and slammed it down on the ice, shattering the ground and sending large boulder-sized chunks into the air, before grabbing one with his free hand and setting it down in front of him. Orston then jumped onto the top of it and stabbed his spear into it, while Smoff gave a swift kick that sent the shard sliding right at her. Standing her ground, Pyrrha shifted the spear to the rifle and took aiming, firing several rounds of fire-based Dust at the ice, just as Orston jumped backwards off of it. The shots as managed to several damage it, creating fiery explosions upon impact, and it was shifted back to the spear. Holding her arm back she threw the spear, boosting its speed and power as it shot forward, embedding itself into the surface before continuing on, splitting it in half, having both ends slide past her on either side, sending a chill down her spine.

Through the parting of the ice, Orston charged right at her, spear aiming right for her, but without her sword all she could do was raise her shield to block the blow, taking it full on. Unlike last time, she was not pushed back, her boots weighting her down nicely, then caught the cross-guard on the spear in the indent on her shield, forcing it down and too the ice. Now with Orston open, Pyrrha undid the magnetism on her boots and used the momentum of the shove to twist her body up and into the air, sending her legs crashing into the side Orston's head, and her crashed to the ground as Pyrrha managed to land on both her feet. Orston was quick to roll to his feet and faced Pyrrha, his spear crackling with lighting that arced along the weapon, and made for another go at Pyrrha, but was slashed along the side by her sword, shooting through midair to return to her hand. Before Pyrrha could launch another attack, Smoff suddenly came into view, swinging his hammer down, breaking the ice in large uneven slabs, causing Pyrrha to lose her balance and fall to the ground, sliding to the back of the area before she slammed right into the larger glaciers. As she managed to push herself up, Smoff came at her, hammer poised right at her.

The entire glacier broke apart as Smoff widely swung, but as he looked around he could not see Pyrrha anywhere. Orston ran up to him, carefully looking around for her, but neither one was able to find her.

If they had looked more closely, instead of all around, they would have seen Pyrrha, curled up, attached to the flat head of Smoff's massive hammer, having magnetized her boots and arm bracer to his weapon. Smoff turned around, looking for her, and as Pyrrha was hovered above Orston she let herself go, dropping down on him and slashing her spear down his back.

The spear-wielder grunted as he fell to his knees, and Pyrrha looped her spear around his neck and used that to throw herself over his body, which in turn threw him over her body, just as Smoff swung at her. Spinning to her side, she loaded up her rifle and shot at Smoff's face, causing him to recoil back momentarily, allowing her time get a few good hits in on his belly. She then dashed to the side as Orston jumped at her, skewering the ice at her feet, but she jumped back at him, kicking both feet to the face before launching herself at Smoff, shield first with enough force to cause him to stumble back, and upon landing she parried a blow from Orston and knocked him in the face with the butt of her gun before firing it at his chest.

Recovering, Smoff swung his hammer low, tearing up the ice as he aimed for Pyrrha, sending shards into the air and Pyrrha was forced to leap back and into the air, but she was caught by Orston, who had leaped into the air and struck Pyrrha with a lightning-infused thrust. Before it connected, Pyrrha had blocked with her shield and was thrown back to one of the larger glaciers, and stabbed her weapon into the ice, hanging their for a brief moment before pulling herself up and digging her shield into the side of the wall, and standing atop it. Looking down she saw Orston and Smoff charge at her, so she readied her rifle and began to fire down at them, first at Smoff, but as he charged forward the shots seemed to do little to deter him, so she turned her aim towards Orston. However the spear-wielder had already made it to the base of the glacier and stuck his spear into ice, and with an added burst of lightning the crack extended upward, splitting the wall in an instant.

Nearly stumbled off her shield, Pyrrha magnetized her boots to her shield to keep her steady, but the shield nearly wobbled loose from where it was embedded. Below her Orston jumped to the side as Smoff ran up, hammer raised above his head before slamming it downward, right atop where Orston made the crack. The entire glacier shattered and broke apart, boulder-sized slabs collapsing to the ground, throwing thick clouds of ice into the air, obscuring the view from the audience. Pyrrha managed to land on the ground, but quickly rolled out of the way as a slab nearly came down on her, and was instantly assaulted by Orston, the blow enough to send her back, and he was on her again by the time she got back up. She intercepted the next swing with the end of her own spear, but a burst of lightning came from his weapon, blowing her weapon away while sending a nasty shock down her arm. Nearly hissing Pyrrha shifted Miló into its sword form as she readied herself against another thrust, using her shield to block off the strike, sliding the blade off and allowing her to make several quick strikes against his chest, but he spun around, swinging his spear widely and knocking her back and made for another attack.

With a slight movement of her hand, Pyrrha focused her semblance on the spearhead, and pushed it away from the direction of her body. With the spear going past her she elbowed Orston in the face before making a stab with her own spear, pushing him backwards, then shifted Miló back to its rifle form and shot at him right in the chest, the force of the round enough to send him flying back, to the end of the biome and landing on his back. Seeing her moment, Pyrrha sprinted forward, running up a collapsed slab of ice and jumped into the air and soared towards Orston, and as she came down she slammed the shaft of her spear right onto him and flung herself forward where she landed safely on her feet.

" **AND THAT IS THE ELIMINATION OF ORSTON LEO! HIS AURA HAS DIPPED INTO THE RED, TURNING THIS MATCH INTO A ONE-ON-ONE!"**

Giving herself a moment to breath, Pyrrha turned around to see Orston laying on the ground, turning himself over to his stomach, and struggling to push himself further up, but he seemed to lack the strength to do so.

"I suggest that you surrender," Pyrrha then said, straight and to the point. "You are in no shape to continue on, you have been eliminated, and trying to push yourself would only cause you harm."

Orston seemed to ignore her, and tried to reach forward, to his grip his spear-

Suddenly he was kicked, sending him across the biome and Pyrrha was shocked to see that his own partner had done that. Smoff loomed over where Orston had been, a wide, hungry grin on his face, and a deep chuckle coming from his belly.

The audience around them was booing at the sight.

"You attacked your own partner?" Pyrrha asked, glaring at her massive opponent, disgust seeping into her voice. "He was already down, there was no reason for that!"

Smoff looked down at his feat, to Orston's spear and reached down, placing on foot on the shaft while his hand grasped at the mechanism at the side, before pulling it off. Grabbing it tightly in his hand, he glanced at Pyrrha for a brief moment before slapping the device onto base of his hammer. The box flashed a bright light and the whole weapon began to crackle with electricity, and he gave a wide swing, sending arcs of lighting off his entire body. Gripping his weapon in both hands, he held the massive hammer in front of him and charged right at her, the crackling snaps of electricity snappy to life around him.

Pyrrha turned around ran from him, heading to the pillar biome, but Smoff was quick on her tail, and just as she breached the line of tower he swung at him, but she rolled out of the way of the swing, and pillar was smashed to pieces. Rolling to her feet, Pyrrha raised her shield up defensively, but Smoff swung down at her, forcing her to further retreat, and as the hammer struck the ground a wave of lightning came off of it, nearly making it past her shield.

Whilst Orston had been precise in his control of his lightning dust, Smoff was happily using with with reckless abandon. The giant laughed as he swung again, taking out another pillar, sending pieces of rubble across the field, forcing Pyrrha to take cover another pillar, but he merely plowed through that as well. Pyrrha attempted to block a blow, but the power behind the next swing nearly knocked her down, but she was able to recover enough to point her rifle at him and shoot him in the face. Grunting loudly he swung wildly, aiming for something, but hitting nothing, and when he was able to open his eyes, he could not see Pyrrha anywhere around her. Gripping his weapon in his hands he slowly turned on his feet, looking around for the girl, hoping to catch a glimmer of red dashing between the pillars, but there was nothing to be seen.

Something then caught his eye; Pyrrha's shield flew through the air and bounced off a pillar before ricocheting towards him, striking him square in the face. He tripped backwards, bumping into a pillar, which he quickly destroyed with a spin of his weapon, and he sought out her more, but the shield had vanished, leaving him with nothing.

Behind him, Pyrrha had climbed the top of a pillar, crouching down and readied her weapon. With his back turned to her, she took her chance and jumped off the top of the pillar and struck him in the back, causing him to stumble forward as she jumped off of him, just in time to avoid the electrical surge. He swung again, but she was able to jump back enough to avoid the strike and closed in again, hitting him in the belly three times, before shooting him in the leg, causing it to buckle under him. Smoff reached out with his free hand and attempted to grab at her neck, but she was able to knock it out of the way and jabbed at him, forcing him back a few steps.

Lightning burst around him as he swung over head down on her, but she back away, jumping off a nearby pillar and landing on the upwards flat head of the hammer, standing on her she separated herself from the weapon itself. Smoff looked up and hatefully glared at her, but she could only return the same fierce and determined expression that she had held for the entire fight, and he threw his hammer up, sending lightning through it, but as the hammer was thrown up, Pyrrha used her semblance on her shield to launch herself before the swing, avoiding the lightning. As she flew through the air she willed her shield back into her hand before throwing it back down at Smoff, again hitting his face, before she fell herself. With that he had tried to hit her, but she manipulated the hammer to move slowly, easily moving past it, striking at him one last time.

She landed in front of him in a three-point position, while behind her Smoff dropped his hammer, it landing on the ground with a heavy thud, as he himself fell backwards, causing the ground the slightly shake.

The buzzer sounded, signaling the end of the match.

" **AMAZING! ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! PYRRHA NIKOS HAS DEFEATED BOTH OF HER OPPONENTS ON HER VERY OWN! CLEARLY THIS GIRL'S REPUTATION STANDS TRUE!"**

" **AND WITH THAT FINAL BLOW, SHE WINS THE FINAL DOUBLES MATCH FOR TEAM JNPR, GAINING THEM A SPOT IN THE FINALS!"**

The cloud began to cheer wildly as Pyrrha stood up, letting go of a breath she didn't know she was holding, and looked around the field; the ice and pillar biomes were each damaged, Orston still consciousness not too far away while Smoff laid behind her. She stood alone, having earned this victory by herself.

Honestly, she wasn't too thrilled about this. She would have preferred it if someone was here with her, to share this victory.

000

Taking a deep breath, Pyrrha made her way down the hallway, taking in and going over the recent victory, around her various people milled out of the stadium, the final match done for the say.

"Pyrrha!" a cry sounded out, causing her to snap her head to the side, and was relieved to see Jaune, Nora and Ren making their way to her, and she happily went to meet them.

"That was amazing!" Jaune cheered, running a bit ahead of the other two. "You certainly took those guys down a peg or two."

"Oh, that wasn't all that impressive," Pyrrha said, trying to suppress a blush. "I mean, they certainly proved a challenge, but I don't think it was that much of a spectacular."

"Your performance was phenomenal, Pyrrha," replied Ren as he and Nora caught. "You shouldn't be so modest about it."

"Oh no but, um..." Glancing over, Pyrrha noticed the soured look on the ginger's face. "Oh, Nora!" she gasped, remembering the start of the match. "I'm so sorry about what happened!"

"Yeah, yeah..." Nora muttered to herself. "I get it, I blew it."

"Don't be like that, Nora." Ren placed a reassuring hand on Nora's shoulder, which seemed to do her a world of good as her expression became much more relaxed.

"Hey guys! Guys! Guys! Over here!"

Team JNPR looked around for the source of the high-pitched cries amongst the crowd, and through the parting of people they could see who was calling them over; It was Ruby, and with her was the rest of her team, as well as Sun and his team.

"Ruby!" Jaune called, leading his own team over to the others.

"I can't believe that we all made it to the finals!" Ruby excitedly cheered, nearly jumping on her feet. "This is so cool!"

"Oh man, I can't wait for the fights!" Sun seemed to be sharing her enthusiasm.

Sage then spoke up. "Each school has two teams representing them, right? That's eight people for the finals."

Weiss nodded, folding her arms over her chest and holding her head high. "I think we should use this time to try and find out who the other teams are are going to send, so that we can attempt to figure out what would be the best way for our chosen participants to combat them."

"Or, we could go out and party?" Yang offered. "You know, celebrate or something?"

"I like the sound of that," Blake agreed.

The general consensus was of similar thought, and even Weiss had to agree in the end.

"Well, does anyone know a good place to go then?" Scarlet asked as the group began to follow behind the rest of the crowd, heading for the shuttles.

"Yeah, there's a pizza place in downtown Vale that makes pies so big and thick you could use them as sled no problem," Yang offered. "Oh! And there's good arcade right across the street from them! They even recently installed a Castle Super Beast machine."

Neptune gasped. "Dude, shut up! Castle Super Beast! I love that game!"

"Hey, first one to kill the Skeleton Ball has to buy a round of drinks for everyone here!"

"Well, your wallet is going to hurt!"

"Come on Nora, let's get you something to eat there," Ren said, a hand still on her back.

"Fine," Nora answered, somewhat reluctantly. "Fine, but I want something big and greasy, and very bad for my heart."

At the very back of the group, Pyrrha gave a small smile. After a fight like that it would be good to have a nice night out.

There was then a loud buzzing from the pouch on her side and she stopped in her tracks. Reaching in she pulled out her scroll and saw that she had a new message, but what really caught her attention was who it was from. Slowing in her steps and falling away from her friends, Pyrrha pressed a finger to the holographic screen and opened up the message.

 _Dear Miss Nikos,_

 _First of all I want to congratulate you on your impressive victory today, you certainly proved your skills in such unfavorable odds. However, I must be brief here, there is something very important that I wish to discuss with you in my office. I'm sure that you wish to celebrate your victory with your friends, and please do so, I do not wish to hurry you, but it is important that we speak at some point before the finals._

 _-Professor Ozpin_

Pyrrha looked at the text worriedly before placing it back in her pouch. What could he possibly want?

"Hey, Pyrrha!" Jaune called out to her, trailing from the group and back to her.

"Huh?" Pyrrha snapped from her thoughts and looked back to her partner. "Oh, I'm sorry, I was just checking something out on my scroll."

"Coming?" He gestured back to the group. "Ruby and Yang are trying to get Weiss to buy dinner for everyone, but really they're just trying to see if they can make her admit she's broke."

Pyrrha gave a chuckle. The message could wait for now, right now it was time to be with her friends.

000

Please review,

Mrfipp


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